Sooo... Sweden won by a country mile, the Russian grannies were second, and Poor old Hump got the curse of going first and just not being memorable enough. I voted for France cos I'm shallow and it was a good song. we, er, didn't come last? that was Norway.

01 UK: Englebert Humperdinck. not bad, just...bland.
02 Hungary: leather jacketed bland bono wannabe.
03 Albania: Fifth Element called, it wants its opera singer back.
04 Lithuania: sparkly blindfolded cute young Barrowman with a cartwheel
05 Bosnia & herzegovina: Morticia went blonde, got a piano and fell in a glitter vat. nice ballad
06 Russia: grannies. in traditional gear. and they pull cakes out of an oven. singing tetris. AWESOME
07 Iceland: bloke and violin girl in black with terrible harmonies. my EARS. vampires wrote and performed this.
08 Cyprus: Anne Hathaway in sparkly dress dancing with a decent pop song and dancing.
09 France: shirtless male hiphop dancers with decent song, tia carrere in a bronze corset and long gauze skirts. HEL-LO.
10 Italy: knock-off Amy Winehouse in bacofoil. twitter: 'fuck off, knock-off Amy Winehouse'.
11 Estonia: gary barlow with interesting eyebrows. and a nice voice.
12 Norway: Enrique Iglesias in a sparkly hoodie and leather jacket. dancey. meh.
13 Azerbaijan: Christine Daae swallowed Celine Dion. and a random throat singer. with shadow beasts trying to eat her dress.
14 Romania: drums, moonwalking with bagpipes, white leather outfits, random bird in bad red dress with cheery song.
15 Denmark: it's like 90s Riot grrls stole someone an outfit from marching band and stuck it on a Dixie Chick. with armchairs.
16 Greece: semi-decent forgettable disco song? with short dresses.
17 Sweden: Kate Bush! wind machine! high NRG dance! YAY! *and* random capoiera!
18 Turkey: it's Sacha Baron Cohen boyband turkish military. with capes...
19 Spain: nice girl, bedsheet dress, decent building song with great voice.
20 Germany: jamie Cullum song. s'okay?
21 Malta: black blazers, 80s pop song, foot dancing... er.
22 FYR macedonia: Anjelica Huston in a sensible black suit, power singing with added rock. Bonnie Tyler wants her tune back.
23 ireland: JEDWARD c3po's love children. With golden showers. I...just... seriously, bowing down in awe.
24 Serbia: serious violinist and other stuff...
25 Ukraine: Cher in flower headdress and white leather fringe abuse. with backing dancers miming with trumpets. give it some welly.
26 Moldova: puffball dresses in bad colours doing a bad comic dance routine and... some bloke that looks like Ed Norton?

Rightio, this is 3 of Bourne's early pieces, pre-Swan Lake *and* Nutcracker - Spitfire, Town and Country and The Infernal Galop. to quote the terrible pun in one review I saw, The Bourne Origin.
( clicky )

it is the Glorious twenty fifth of May. do you know where your towel is?

Took up hula-hooping (a kiddy one for £3, I'm not buying a sodding weighted £25 one if it turned out it would just gather dust after two tries) because I'd heard something vague about it being good for burning calories, and I needed something as it wasn't like I could cycle during the downpours of the last few months. Being freezing, soaked and mud-spattered is not my idea of fun. You get much colder and muddier on a bike than you ever do jogging. Discovered that you get bored in about two minutes and it's bloody frustrating doing about six loops and seeing it drop to the floor. Kept at it whenever my computer froze or I got bored - essentially, about 2-5mins a day. Got better at keeping it up, as you do when you do something regularly.

Was poking my upper abs earlier this week as I've always had fairly decent ones due to carrying a heavy bag, and they'd recently got a bit more defined. Discovered that definition is appearing *below* my belly button. Which has never happened. Not when I was boxing, or even when I was a size 12 on my arse when I was jogging like mad one autumn. When hula-hooping, noticed that you could see said lower abs flexing. So, yeah, there's still a bit of flab over them, but... lower abs.

So: hula-hooping for 5 mins most days gives you better abs than regular sit-ups and crunches and planks, without the pain, sweating or nagging feeling that you're not doing it right. Oh, and your lower back is a bit firmer. Bonus.

There was also a Q&A with Matthew Bourne, the director of the film (filmed the previous Swan Lake, Car Man and Nutcracker. Me and Taz have ...issues with his directing) and the producer. Not really the interesting aside from a couple of technical issues re:3D, Richard Winsor being in the audience and answering a question, and Matthew being made to give a verbal promise by Alan Yentob to do a tv/film piece.

Anyhoo. Swan Lake was fab as usual. me and Taz giggled the most, possibly because we are a) very verbal at showing our appreciation for live performance (and thus tend to get waves and winks directed at us by dancers when in front row) People did gradually giggle more as it went on (there was also clapping), but yeah, we start with the prince getting out of bed. and then comes the corgi. All hail the corgi. The giggling tends to be unrestrained during the Cygnet Dance, but that is what it is there for. that and going 'd'awwww' at the cygnet who is a bit chunky and potato-headed, but then we do this every time he appears on stage. Think a younger, slightly bulkier, slightly shorter Russell Tovey.

Differences in production: No climbing over the box by the girlfriend to retrieve her handbag. Prince at start is actually played by a kid, which it is *not* in the stage versions.

Awww, Dominic North as the Prince is adorable. :pats him on head:
Madeleine Brennan as the Girlfriend is...a bit old. Interesting touch in the dance with the Stranger where they played it as her stopping dancing with him because she's decided it's not for her, not that she's out of her depth as it normally is.
All hail Nina Goldman and her awesome as the Queen.
We love Steve Kirkham. Long may his awesomeness as the Secretary continue.

Richard Winsor as the Swan and Stranger. GUH. Swan? :flaily power sexiness sensitivity gibber: Stranger? he appeared on the balcony, stalked forward, and I blinked and went 'Richard is being a stalky scary bastard again....' At which point Taz went 'Happy Joy.' So yes, fanning oneself was a bit necessary. He's not sexually-harass-you-from-next-room like Brick Shithouse's Stranger, but he's sexy, stalky, and really bloody menacing. With an edge of 'might flip at any moment'. Interestingly, on him the leather trousers don't look like overdoing it. They're just there.

So, now the count of Swan/Strangers is: Adam Cooper's better as Swan, the bloke we saw last time was better as Stranger, and Brick Shithouse and Richard can do both. Hurrah, our favourites are our faves for a reason.

Comments on 3D. Due to the technical constraints, longer shots. Oh thank christ. But gets blurry when they're moving fast. It adds a bit of depth but overall, not really worth it. 2D please. But god things: director has remembered to include the stuff going on on the sides. He's bloody awful for doing this, which means an entire storyline didn't make sense at the ball in the previous version as you only saw the culmination of it.

Spotted Richard in foyer, Taz and Gideon went 'you know you want to', so went over, said 'um' a lot, but kept it to 'really enjoyed it, you were brilliant', and asking him if he was in all of Play Without Words performances. and pouting a bit that he's not in Early Adventures. He confirmed yes, sighed a bit over not being able to manage the Early Adventures (he was supposed to be in it) and was generally lovely.

OMG OMG NOT ONLY IT IS GOING TO BE IN THEATRES IN 3D, BUT WE GET A 2D DVD IN A FEW WEEKS! As Taz said, 'You're buying.'

So, after nearly a year, burntcopper.com and darkisrising.net are back up after I finally got my arse in gear and signed up to dreamhost.

Not everything's back up. Just burntcopper the portfolio, oi yanks no, and dark is rising.

Going to go through my fic and see what's on there that I want to put up on Ao3. Don't think I'll put the site back up again.

Need to figure out what the hell to do with the slash archive. Because trying to set that back up will be a complete pain in the neck. suggestions?


Oh, and going through the folder where I kept site ideas, came across an interesting one: A Wes/Faith ship site, pretty obviously inspired by the BtVS Writers' Guild when that was still running and possibly if the (pretty horrific) ship site of the time went belly up. The only thing I'd done for it was the statement of 'why ship them' and give it a name. I still ship 'em, and I really fucking like the name (stolen from a DC AU 60s Batgirl comic): Thrillkiller. Seriously, why is there not a film of that name?

So, um, yes. more updating.

Job finished on friday. as a leaving thingy I got a Miss Chatterbox mug. At which everyone burst out laughing when I pointed out I was never given owt with her on it. (my Little Miss stuff was normally purple sporting a green bow.) Weirdly relieved in a way, experiencing this concept of 'normal sleep'. applying for jobs. Experienced today that utterly weird thing called signing on. Job Centre is this weird quiet place of depression. Who don't seem to have publishing as a career choice.

Saw Avengers yesterday. which: :flail: so awesome. so much fun. (giggling or outright guffawing every few minutes) So shiny. and yes, there is a requisite 'Joss you bastard!' point.

Norway; Sweden; Finland; Denmark; Iceland; chrissakes, even Britain...

Seriously, so many bits about history, cultural reactions, general knowledge (remember how they released Thor in Europe before the US because we may not have heard of the comic but everyone's heard of the god?)... seriously, even ingrained politeness and *monarchy* would make a difference, let alone guns and govt/army reaction.

Dunno how much different but definitely *different*. Seriously, in the UK we have a tendency to chuck our princes straight into the military, which - at least we'd have a ready-made delegation.

Just... kept forgetting to post. there has been:

Theatre: Neverwhere @ Progress (Reading's amateur group, once again awesome. Neil, you put too many scene changes in there for theatre. Certain actors stealing show. AS USUAL.)
Shrek (moments of awesome, moments of group numbers. during which you wish to gas the theatre and everyone twitches as they're so... American.)
Singin in the Rain: Like the film. but with better dancing. And soaking the first three rows. Audience: SQUEE.
Comedy of Errors: ....WAGs work so well as the more naggy/stressed female role for Shakespeare.
Hay Fever: 'this family likes acting out. Everyone else is freaked' eee. cast!
Fascinating Aida: dying. of. laughter. Dillie making bitchy noises about should have put the Cheap Flights thing up on youtube years ago.
Bingo: your using the laws of x as a parable for the time you wrote it is showing rather painfully. MOAR BEN JONSON.
Recruiting Officer: I need more restoration comedy in my life. :fangirls Mark Gatiss as most magnificent fop *ever*

Film: The Artist 'omg EEE so cute', Shame 'it's brilliant but now I have a hollow place in my soul.', The Muppets 'MNAMNA.', Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists 'giggling at trigger words weeks later'

serious perving over 6 nations rugby. It's easier to refer to them as 'red team' 'white team' 'white team player leaps on floor with ball, pretty white kicker gets ball between posts.'

TV: Being Human. Aka 'new cast is.... OMG.' :pats Tom on head: 'Hal, more press-ups!' Tom/Hal! Annie. Gah. :pats Cutler on head: Mark Gatiss, please stop scaring us. D'awwww, Cutler. Whosa cute little psycho? Alex, you have just earned yourself so many awesome points.'

First ep of Once Upon a Time just aired in UK. So far it appears to be Fables but infinitely more interesting, 5000x less rapey and LACKING THE INFLUENCE OF BILL WILLINGHAM. HUZZAH.

And they finally gave me my notice, after telling us for ages 'end of march'. finishing on Apr 20th. After I'd had to make many many pointed comments about it due to screwing us around.

Title : Very Slightly Tainted Angels
Author : Gunbunny
Fandom : X-Men:First Class
Pairing : Charles/Erik, various other ones
Rating : Three swear words. I feel so *ashamed*...
Word count: 4965
Summary : 1930s Berlin au. ...I may have read a bit too much Christopher Isherwood and watched Cabaret a few too many times?
Disclaimer : Not mine. Marvel's.
Feedback : I accept burnt offerings and alcohol. ta to Pete for beta-ing.

( Read more... )

Hamlet:

Young Vic 18th Feb, Michael Sheen as Hamlet, Vinette Robinson as Ophelia, other people I will, er, add when I can find a cast list....

All round, v good performances. bit brain breaking as it's set in a mental asylum, and it's made very clear that Hamlet is one of the most nuts from the start. Which sadly makes me grit my teeth even more - I want to give the character a good kicking all through Acts 1 and 2 at the best of times (act 3, when he's stopped acting like such a little self-entitled shit, just about bearable). This? Stick him in a woodchipper, especially during the play when he just goes too far.

Nice notes: Polonius being paranoid as hell in a genial way and constantly recording everything and reassuring people he's recording everything. Ophelia playing a lap harp to communicate when she's really gone off her rocker. Gertrude and Claudius being in much smarter clothing and seeming much more together than everyone else to create the illusion of court. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern being... basically visiting social workers or Salvation Army people, from what I could tell of their dress. The ghost is Hamlet having a fit. Which actually makes a hell of a lot more sense for the character's motivations. Oh, and Fortinbras pulls off his helmet to reveal... Hamlet. Hellooooo extra level of headfuck.

Pre-play, they take you through the back, which has been made up to look like an institution - walls, bits of luggage, labels, schedules, rooms designated 'treatment', gymnasium, tiny blood smears, bored guards... They've done the back wall so it's glass doors and you can see into the entrance/reception and incomers like R&G get searched as they come in. Any conversations about Fortinbras approaching are the guards commenting on news on the tv in the reception. Same for Hamlet listening in on Claudius' discussions with R&G through the radio when they're in the reception area. Combine with warning sirens, emergency lighting, and announcements over the tannoy. Oh, and the stage, they lift up a giant portion to reveal a sandpit underneath in Act 3 for the gravedigger scene. then they fall into it during the fencing - which doesn't really make sense until they push all the dead bodies into it, cover it with a tarpaulin... which enables a quick change so they can come in tac gear as Fortinbras' men.

someone tell my brain that listening to bunnies is BAD. especially vague ideas you had a while ago of 'huh, that'd be interesting'. especially when you've already written a bunch of notes for your current piece but keep putting off writing them up and expanding on them.

ESPECIALLY NARNIA BUNNIES.

The entirely plausible possibility that the Pevensies who show up in Prince Caspian are Archenlander spies sent to cause havoc and de-stabilise Miraz' grab for power... :headdesk headdesk headdesk:

Trumpkin being one of the Narnian rebels who's one of the Archenlander contacts to help facilitate this. (still debating whether Reepicheep is in on it too)

'Caspian's fled for his life.'
'Right, initiate plan legend: bring me people who fit this description and skillset. They need to be able to do a Narnian accent.'
'Trumpkin reports Caspian has been found. Alive.'
'Right, get them suited, booted, and meeting up with Trumpkin.'

So, a young officer, one of the up and coming spy team, one of the archers, and a kid from a travelling circus enter Narnia, seek out Trumpkin, (rescuing him just in time), rifle through Cair Paravel for any bits that would make them look a bit more authentic. (yes, they do know where it is, it's not like they don't have *maps*, and the armory wasn't raided due to collapse of empire and superstition.) Vaguely surprised to find the weapons there are in bloody good nick.

And essentially it escalates a bit, the girl playing Lucy found out that the potion does what it says on the tin back at Cair Paravel, the spy playing Edmund is just a tad freaked to find out that the ghost of the White Witch is clearly mistaking him for somebody else. And then they find themselves doing this, and this, and he's suddenly in Miraz' tent goading him into accepting single combat....

Saw Shrek.

It's... hmm. one of those ones that varies enormously. Some parts, utterly hysterical, audience nearly dying laughing (any time Lord Farquard is onstage) good (Princess Fiona's stuff - gets a lot of the better songs) and horribly, horribly mediocre with a side order of polite clapping. (anything about friendship, the chorus as fairytale characters singing about how everyone's special in their own way)

The design is *amazing*. Great costume work, the dragon is a combo of chinese lantern style wire-paper work with added puppeteering, the set design is fab - some lovely work with cut-out flat colour but using layering to give depth. (other moments: Pied Piper wanders along trying to get rats, they raise the curtain six inches - and a bunch of people are in rat slippers doing a soft-shoe shuffle. Raise the curtain fully, dancers in full white tie and tails with ears and noses doing a full Busby Berkley.) Oh, and the occasional other-musicals sight gag.

Story: mostly identical to the film, aside from greatly expanding Lord Farquard's (Nigel Harman) part to a piece of genius, camp, and Producers-level piss take during his songs. Up to and including some *fab*ulous vamping on the level of Kenny Everett. And oh my god, you don't realise just how much extra funny you can get out of the fact that the role of a dwarf is played by someone *obviously* on his knees, complete with mad scrambling to get into position. And minions. He has wonderful minions. And a horse. And an executioner.

Donkey is... you know how it's a joke about how irritating he is in the film? Some good moments (especially reaction shots) but unfortunately due to not having a screen between you and the character, a lot of the comedy-irritating is ...just irritating. However, small blessings: Richard Blackwood was off. Delroy Atkinson instead. Who, y'know, can sing, has charisma, etc... (interesting thing about mr. Atkinson: everyone I spoke to was going 'no, seriously, the name and face are familiar, what the hell have I seen him in?' Checking the programme, the only thing I could see was Enchanted Pig at the Young Vic. Got into an 'ooo, what shows have you seen/what do you think' goss with one of the ushers and she had the same problem...)

Shrek: great performance from Nigel Lindsay, just not unfortunately given much good material unless he's against Fiona. in theatre the role pretty much acts as a straight man everyone else plays off.

Fiona: HEE. the role: Funny, bossy, spoilt, having a lot of fun, gets several good songs. Kimberley Walsh is utterly charming, in good voice, and can dance a bit. And special mention to the little girl playing her in flashback. So. Cute. Also very fucking talented, that kid.

So, in conclusion: It's okay, but take a book for about 1/3 of it. And don't pay full price.

And in other news: you know how I managed to get an electric shock off a banana a few weeks back? Did it again yesterday. Then at 4pm managed to get a shock off myself.

Is this a clue from the universe that I need to just start wearing white all the time and submit myself to a govt experimentation program?

Found under a pile when doing the twelfth night removal of all xmas decorations: a copy of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. Suspect it was bought during the photography student days to study early propaganda and innovative angles. Cue me and Dad popping it in out of curiosity and watching random bits. I'm pretty sure the below was not the reaction wanted:

'...X was a really, really shitty public speaker, wasn't he? LOOK UP FROM YOUR NOTES.'

'SNORE. Edit this bit, it's going on too long.' *later* 'no, really, EDIT. I shouldn't be able to fast forward and find out we're still on the same shot.'

'No, seriously, how much did you nick from the Romans?'

'Seriously, tone down the Wagner.'

'So, random party members sitting down during the talk are allowed to be ugly with bad hair, but if they're military during the parade, only the immensely good-looking are allowed into shot.'

'Giant torchlit parades: FIRE HAZARD. What if they trip over a runaway dachsund?'

'Huh, I hadn't realised I knew Hitler's body language that well. it's like he's suffering from over-jerky syndrome.'

Ah, the New Years' round up of various WIPs/ideas on the backburner lurking in notebooks. Most of these are one-line ideas and never go anywhere. in many cases I lose interest in the fandom.

Chug your chosen bottle of spirits if I finish any of these anytime this year...

Torchwood/Dark is Rising - Bran is head of Plaid Cymru and his hubbie works at Cardiff Uni. collisions happen occasionally with the least covert agency ever.

Dark is Rising/Merlin - I just wish someone would come up with a decent story idea for this...

X-Men 1930s Berlin AU. Yes, my Isherwood fetish is showing. shut up.

Vince-toff Stuart-valeting for his own good. Sadly have no idea how to keep it in character.

Dean as trickster devotee.

Ianto joining TW3 before Canary Wharf as a known Yvonne plant.

Edmund getting chased by Bacchus

Narnia/Merlin. PC call goes weird, Peter joins knights, etc

need to get a new job as mine ends in march.
Lose weight due to over-eating in Cornwall then christmas.*

*The above one, have made start by buying a hula hoop, which is already more fun than sit-ups. And doesn't have the 'argh, mud/dark/wet/cold' problem of cycling in winter.

fillet wardrobe due to it creaking at the edges.

I'd like to take dance classes but really need to find ones that start at a time which doesn't necessitate me sitting around for two hours after work.

Other things I'll take as I come.

most of my more...reasonable fic is now over at A03 here (no, this does not include all the BtVS fic) Put up the post-Prince Caspian nano too.

Jane asked me to put the most recent nano up, but...er... any idea of what fandom?

And after having to clean the inside of the work microwave, have discovered *why* you put something over the top of soup. (I come from a family that traditionally uses this thing called a hob and a saucepan to heat up soup)

Surprisingly, very few films - Eagle, Captain America, Thor, X-men:First Class, Jane Eyre and Tinker Tailor are the only ones I remember going to see, aside from a couple of National Theatre live viewings.

Went to several BBC radio recordings - mostly John Finnemore focussed. (him behind Cabin Pressure)

Theatre - A *lot*. Globe for Much Ado, All's Well and Dr Faustus, Betty Blue Eyes, Haunted Child, Ladykillers, Soho Cinders, a few concerts here and there for new writing, Matthew Bourne's Cinderella twice, Some Like It Hip Hop, Flare Path, Macbeth, all-male Iolanthe, Vernon God Little, and ordinary days. er. i think that's all of it...

Fic written:

What if The Authority was picked up by HBO for a tv series: We Want to Save the World But We Need a Drink First
My Matthew Bourne Obsession Is Showing : An Eagle of the Ninth Billy Elliot/Step Up AU, Culture is Never Wasted

Sooo, yesterday we decamped to Houseboat Hampton. With half a tonne of food. (seriously. *two* beef wellingtons, chocolate mousse, alcohol, cheese, bread, salad, tomatoes, and the ingredients for a very *large* eton mess. Eton Mess is my mum's new fave dessert for parties because it can be done in five minutes and requires no prep.)

got up motorway with relatively trouble... until we got to Hampton and spent god knows how long to go about four miles.

Got there, met David's fiancée Jo, (marriage is taking place... sometime that is not January, February or May) Tabs' boyfriend Alberto, who is rather lovely. and Brazilian. And had brought his own chillis for chilli oil that I started raiding (medium heat, nicely tasty). Some accused me of showing off. Dad pointed out that no, she just snacks on chillis. We ate, we gossipped, we drank endless snowballs. I finally has the Adele albums and David gifted several of us with sloe gin. mwhahaha.

And on Boxing Day we decamped to Blewbury in Oxfordshire for a meander and fresh air, and a drink. Entered Red Lion to be greeted by a packed pub singing twist and shout (there was ongoing karaoke including Angels and American Pie), people in bull costumes and several in white with red sashes and gore marks on their faces. Apparently they'd decided to re-enact the Pamplona running of the bulls. in a small mostly listed village in Oxfordshire. yes, dear reader, WTF was definitely on our minds...

Relatives are here (well, them and parents buggered off to look at a bridge in process of construction and possibly end up at pub, I'm staying to cuddle my laptop, poss watch Dr Who)

So. Turkey dinner. Turkey... meh. trimmings decent, but Mum is now going 'omg so much less hassle and so many fewer bloody trimmings involved in beef Wellington!' Heh.

I has a Chewbacca doll (which makes 'MRRRAGH' sounds when you press its belly, it's like a combo of Gideon and Meg when sleepy.) blond superhero dvds, a book on secret london, film noir and Betty Blue Eyes soundtracks, and Christopher and His Kind in book form. also a mutant fluffy hat.

Downton Abbey (only tv we got to watch) really did feel like we should have had popcorn to throw at the screen. (we were already making 'boo! Hiss!' noises and 'Thomas, really?' '...I'm really beginning to like Mrs Patmore less and less, I really am.' 'GRANNY IS AWESOME.' 'Huh, so sympathetic O'Brien is actually still pretty cool.' 'Awww, Daisy.' 'Anna, you're boring.')

Tomorrow it's off to the other cousins on the houseboat in Hampton, taking half a tonne of food with us.

Now to start the countdown until the parentals start making 'so, birthday list?' sounds.

Um. So, there was cornwall, where it rained a lot, I stuffed myself (seriously, how long does this stuff take to come off your waistline? It goes on easily enough...) and got a lot of present shopping done. And couldn't cross the street at one point due to the santa fun run.

Shopping for me was relatively restrained: one skirt, a jumper, 7 dvds, couple of pairs of tights, earrings, fudge.

When I got back, all I heard and saw were the hands stuck out as my friends and family demanded fudge. Which included the pre-xmas cocktails with Jen, Jane and Meg. 'I have presents I looked for and deliberated over and all you want is the fudge?' 'FUDGE. NAO. GIMME.'

Also see pubmeet. Anyone with chocolate was attacked. (Gideon brought post Argentinian wagon wheels, with the marshmallow replaced by dulce de leche. Cue sugar coma.) Lots of ... yeah, pubmeet people devolve into seals when you dangle fudge in front of them. There was the listing of films set at christmas but not about christmas (anything Shane Black wrote - Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Long Kiss Goodnight - we're waiting for the christmas tree in the background of Iron Man 3) squee about fan stuff, x-men fanfic.

Saw Haunted Child at the Royal Court with Ben Daniels and Sophie Okenedo (Queen Liz Ten to Dr Who fans). Great performances but deeply freaky. About a bloke who has a mental breakdown and gets picked up by a cult and his wife trying to deal when he comes home. Me plus the bloke sitting next to me agreed it's not one you'd want to see twice even if it is impressive.

Ladykillers as adapted for the stage by Graham Linehan is hysterical. Everyone's brilliant, the stage is amazing and you won't believe how they do the heist.

Feeding the Five Thousand - mum cut down on the food so there wasn't the acres of leftovers we couldn't use, the sprogs nicked my disney dvds as usual, and Alex was very hungover.

Yesterday: got twitchy, contemplated hauling out the ancient aerobics dvd as it would be cold and muddy outside. Menu music starts up. Ten minutes later, I had mud up to my eyebrows and was going 'mmm, fresh air.'

Someone kick my head in. Brain has... gone to the cabaret place. Or more specifically, the Christopher isherwood place and is pondering Charles and Erik in 30s Berlin. Not sure if it's a mutant AU or not, since nods would be interesting but so would adding the mutant stuff to the 'deviants/jews/gypsies' persecution.

Charles goes there post-getting his doctorate or part way through getting it (celebration or inspiration/needing time off, details, whatever) but also for the boys.

Meets Raven (Jean, not Sally - I prefer her having a brain and being the politically aware one and not just a deluded strung out mess with daddy issues) who works in a club. With Angel. (this was what partly had me undecided, since Raven occasionally performing blue and Angel with wings would be cool for a cabaret act but *also* the inherent 'argh' of 'what if they found out it's not paint' if I chose mutant)

Meets Erik in one of the clubs under the arches, not sure if they start shagging immediately, (shag then talk or talk then shag) but there's the usual of Erik getting caught up in a riot or two and the time he stumbles in with bruises and really lays down the 'hello, Jewish, this is what Nazis *do*, Charles'.

Toying with whether Alex is a nazi and whether Hank is working on govt stuff and being oblivious. The others will be there, just those two are the niggly ones. Shaw is off being Schmidt and therefore being a very scary geneticist getting in with the Nazis as they rise to power and probably not in this.

So yeah, needs more plot and work on characterisation. And given that I've only mainlined the Cabaret film into my bloodstream, seen the stage version, and the adaptation of Christopher and His Kind on the BBC (not read the books, I really need to), need to do research. any recommendations? Books? resources? (given how what the job state was in Berlin at the time, I'm presuming Erik would not have a job given that he's Jewish unless he was self-employed or employed by Jews. Somehow can't quite see him working the caberet circuit. unless you could convince me otherwise. Can Fassbender sing or play an instrument?)

And during this I'm writing out my snippets of Torchwood Pevensies. Which needs a plot. or at least a structure.

So, in a fit of complete insanity, knowing bugger all about the TV industry aside from how it looks on the outside, I wrote what if The Authority by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch was made into a tv series. Done as a series of tweets, conversations, interviews and blog, lj and tumblr posts.

It's spellchecked and slightly edited but not very much.

We Want to Save the World But We Need a Drink First

Okay, I passed 51k last night so I've technically finished. Going back and tweaking things (horrendous spelling, for instance - my speed typing is not conducive to 'the' being spelt correctly. EVER.) and pondering adding a scene where they film jenny's death. Now I'm really, really wishing I could write out every scene and episode, but that would read like the After Elton recaps (which I've already written for ep 1 - reviews from Collider, Den of Geek and After Elton. Different styles are a bit... weird.) Maybe I could find an excuse to write the Jenny flashback 1930s club scene in another fandom... it'd be enjoyable writing the sheer WTF-ery of the After Elton recaps for Blue Albion and Jenny's death but suspect it would get tiresome pretty quickly.

So. if I write a few extra snippets, do the spellcheck... then dump it into one big doc file and stick it up on Nano for word count.

Anyway. I no longer have an excuse to gorge myself on chocolate. :eyes leftovers:

and gin. definitely gin.

Pubmeet, where there was squee, writing discussion, merlin squee, me begging Smitty to put Pete Wisdom in her nano. Then me, jen and Taz went waitrose on way to jen's to watch blond superhero films. Taz has developed very good kabanos radar. I have trained her well. And yay verily, we all went 'awwww' over Agent Coulson and Loki. ...Loki actually facepalms in this. And went 'Peggy and Tommy Lee Jones: Be you, only MORE SO'. And fangirled Darcy. And traded fic recs.

I started to fade, and... apparently I deflate and start talking in the third person. And sound about five. And then Taz started laughing at my Supergirl jammies. And told jen my previous ones were Wonder Woman.

next morning, a tad delicate, but fortunately no headdache.

Plus: it was bloody cold, and wtf was with the fog?

Watched the first hour of the Children in Need concert from thurs post-dinner, yelled for parents when it was Hugh Laurie. The man is awesome. And mum went '...who's that, he looks *twelve*?' Me + dad: Jamie Cullum, been around for ages. And then dad fanboyed Andrea Bocelli. (give him a good Nessun Dorma and he goes into auto-starry-eyed mode)

Due to the delicacy + pub, only got about 1.8k done this weekend. Still, total of just over 40k...

At that stage of nano where you're scratching your head and going '....seriously, did i just write that?'

Thanking the Flying Spaghetti Monster for HBO's makinggameofthrones.com site - a blog where they burble, squee, stick up tiny interview snippets, the writers stick up blogs about how they started on this, stick up the trailers, stick up the promo images, stick up 'overheard on set' quotes, stick up pictures of the studio cat... Absolute. Bloody. Noodly-appendage Sent. and it's all in order! All tagged! Right from the moment they started filming! Yeah, I'm cribbing timelines, ideas, marketing strategy... the blogs were definitely brilliant, since I can pad like crazy using this when stuck:

'today, dear reader, I tried not to embarass myself in front of Julian Glover and constantly quote Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But. But. Julian Glover.' (this is one of the early blogs on the site.) 'today, dear reader, Neil Marshall is on set directing. We're in caves, it's spooky, it's.... I AM TRYING NOT TO THINK ABOUT THE FACT THAT HE DIRECTED THE DESCENT. HELLLLLP.'

Oh, and these are the 'overheard on set' quotes from Oct 27th:

Can I have a dead Lannister over here?

Oh F**k, this is the bad blood! Where’s the good stuff? The ooze?

Errmm, I think I’ve lost the director.

I can’t decide who’s cuter – the dead guy with the arrows in his chest, or the guy in the ditch with the seeping wound.

But yeah, having made absolutely no pretensions to what it's actually like in a PR stratagem meeting at a big tv studio, I last night I wrote 1,975 words of the Head of PR ranting about them not having a clear image or theme in place that he could use for a basis. 'True Blood: 'sex! More sex! Nakedness! Vampires! The Wire: 'we are cops and gangsters and we do not give a flying fuck about you!' :headdesk: 'You give me superheroes? Superheroes that no-one's heard of? That don't even have a logo? I need a teaser ident - christ, Game of Thrones had politics and paranoia and backstabbing and frozen wastes....'

Tonight I write the trailers and character one sheets. yes, actual descriptions of images. Shaddup. the tumblr posts are things like 'image: actor with a cat on his head'

further interesting bits: I had one chapter where the actors were giving interviews for the making of snippets. these are *considerably* different to the kind of stuff you'd say in normal interviews. i still have the press chapter to come.

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

Suicide in the Trenches, Siegfried Sassoon.

You remember the 'managing to cut myself on a banana' of last week?

Today i got an electric shock off one.

The bananas. They have it in for me. Clearly.

I'm naturally an electric shocky person as it is - metal, carpet, other people - one co-worker was an electric shocky person as well, and the pinnacle of our achievement was the time we managed to shock each other from across the corridor, complete with a loud bang and the receptionist going 'what the fuck was that?'

But this, I feel, has surpassed even that. BANANA.

word count for today: 1882 (blood out of a stone, I'm telling you)
total so far: 12506
where am supposed to be: 10002

Not bad at this stage, but considering it's a sunday I really should've got more done that. Blaming Downton Abbey and Strictly, but considering I'd barely got 1k done after four hours... (seriously, I got way more done yesterday and I went to the local fireworks display *and* watched Merlin) :sigh: the day started out so well since I could write the greenlight press release on auto, but after that it was like blood out of a stone.

So far I've got the point of the series being greenlit post-pilot and the cast comments at the photocall. To come, the filming of the eps, first PR material, writer chatter, interviews, etc.

Fireworks very pretty with huge explosions. Only problem was that i cycled to Pangbourne, found I'd forgotten my wallet, had to cycle back, grab the wallet from the kitchen table, and on the trip back to pangbourne my lights failed. Fortunately, it's a well-lit route and I was wearing my vest, but arrgh. Cycling back *not* fun as everyone else was driving back and they had land rovers. Also: I HATEHATEHATE those glowstick things. At least it's not panto. Cue getting batteries from Tesco Metro this afternoon.

Been going through capkink when I'm at that point of staring into space on the nano, and though I know my kinks and turn-offs (BDSM bores the shit out of me, f'r instance.), for once I was reading through one and suddenly started scrambling backwards at speed. Someone posted hurt/comfort Steve/Bucky where Steve gets sicker than usual. (for those who don't know the Captain America backstory: Steve wasn't just weedy, he had lung problems and a few other bits) The author started posted about hacking coughs and getting sicker and ... yeah, that was me scrambling backwards at speed. Too fucking close to the bone. I know I joke a lot about my lung problems, and brush a lot of it off as I know most of what you hear isn't serious, it just sounds bad. That one, with the added symptoms was too close to those times when I've been curled up in severe pain and wheezing and start getting worried as hell. That time I had bronchitis as a kid, or the time I had the lung infection, or the time I tore a tendon. Or those times when I look at the phlegm I've just coughed up and surreptitiously check it for blood, even though I know the chances of there ever being blood in there is a million to one. Too much in popular culture about TB, I guess. (and yes, I have been checked for it and had the all-clear)

Anyway, nano as of last night:

word count: 7324
where I need to be by end of today: 8334

Nanowrimo as of last night:

Word count: 1,842
Target: 1,667

so, that's sort of okay for Day 1. Had a complete whatsit of terror when I realised I completely forgot which sites early rumours would most likely surface on. Stocked up on discounted Hallowe'en chocolate to keep me going. Evening, I went and googled 'game of thrones 2010/2009' to check where most announcements/statements of greenlights etc are most likely to be made... (using GoT as a template for this stuff due to it being giganticor HBO show of similar-ish genre) and oddly enough, it seems Collider is the place most likely, or at least the most detailed. Went and read several reports to get ideas for further reports, as so far what I've written is the early rumour on Bleeding Cool that it's in the 'possible adaptation' bucket (and yes, I did have the comments section with 'Wonder Woman. Just saying.'), and actress playing Jenny being called by her agent about it, then her boyfriend's reaction.

Today's goals are... her audition, her boyfriend's audition (he's going up for Jack, Midnighter and Apollo), the OMG I got it flail, and hopefully the next statement of 'picked up by HBO/BBC', then follow that with the comic site flail and the ONTD bitching. (ONTD and the later ONTD_Authority would be so much more satisfying if I had an lj-format generator, really it would. But I can boost word count by going '_insert gif of Arrested Development trouser drop_')

today is clearly a day of 'sit down before you hurt yourself':

I cut myself on a banana.

Really. I'm not kidding. Banana.

Picked up banana, dropped it, the brown crusty end hit my arm, next thing I know it's bleeding. Stopped fairly quickly and cleaned it, site is now just mostly red. But still. BANANA. my workmates and friends will not stop snickering.

But let this be a lesson to you: bananas are not just deadly in the 'drank too many daiquiris' or 'skidded on the skin'. They are also edged weapons.

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring...

...Okay, that's bollocks. We're rifling through the chocolate left over from the trick or treating. we completely deny stocking up *just in case* we were besieged. It never hurts, you never know... :cough:

Anyway. Doing last minute re-reading of Stormwatch and Authority. Will of course be going back regularly throughout the month, especially when writing the stuff on set or the writers arguing (I have no names for the writers, directors or producers. KILL ME NOW), rehearsals, stuff they can skim for trailers and one-sheets, but this is the last minute last gasp. Tomorrow I have to start writing the announcement that the show has been greenlit as the new HBO/Sky production and at the very least the fan speculation on casting. maybe even start it with the audition? ARRRRGH. oh, god, why don't I read trade stuff? Or Variety? this will bear absolutely no relation to reality...

:deep breaths: Skimming Stormwatch due to only needing the Stormwatch Black stuff for Authority plottishness and a few other storylines - Apollo and Midnighter's backstory episode and using Change or Die. Interesting little bit of... not so much character change as how Shen's referred to. (Jack's shown as having massive argh about killing in an early Stormwatch ep, but later in the run when Stormwatch Black're solidified as a team, he's killing quite regularly. Jenny merely electrocutes people she feels are tossers.) her character is changed very quickly from timid-ish nice girl with feathery arms she can glide with to sarcastic badass and moderating influence due to The Bad Influence That Is Jenny. Suppose it's the whole 'gods/archetypes' thing Ellis gets into with 'Change or Die' and continued the mythology with Planetary - Jenny gets referred to as the Spirit of the Twentieth Century, Jack as the God of the Cities, and Swift gets the Winged Huntress. Interesting for how, plus treatment of powers post-proper activation. At first as a casual aside, then it becomes their archetype-title. Not just proper wings, but claw hands and feet, being able to hear and see things, gauge the wind eddies like birds do. then you get the Engineer, the Doctor, Apollo, Midnighter... (note to self: must not refer to the Doctor *ever* by the name he got later - he doesn't have one during the Ellis/Hitch/Neary run, Angie states in the first issue that they don't know it. I may be filching little bits like the Jenny/Shen relationship from the series, but the feel's better with the Doctor as he is in the Ellis/Hitch run)

Also going through scene tags- drafts of scenes, dialogue snippets I'd previously written - found a couple that're getting ejected due to change of character I'd decided. I can't have what would normally be quite a decent scene of the lead actress discussing this new role on a superhero show with her agent... because I've since established that her boyfriend is a complete Ellis fanboy. Maybe I can adjust it for the actress playing Angie?

Soho Cinders.

aka Stiles and Drewe *finally* sodding finish a show they premiered the first batch of songs and story for it at their anniversary bash a few years ago*, and stage it in concert-ish form with unbelievable names for charity. Cue most of the West End Wendys and half the gay community turning up. (oh, including one Mr. Stephen Fry who was clearly running late, who turned up at the theatre running at full tilt at 7, dodging through the crowd outside the theatre and into the bar to meet up with his boyfriend and some mates.)

As you may have guessed, it's a modern take on Cinderella. Set in Soho. Cinders = Robbie (Jos Slovick), a student who does side work as an escort who's seeing the Mayoral Candidate, James Prince (Michael Xavier). Who is engaged and is running his campaign on, er, honesty and no sleaze. Add: The candidate's fiancée, Marilyn (Hannah Waddingham), William George (David Bedella), Prince's campaign manager who is a bastard of the first order, Sasha his put-upon assistant (Richard David-Caine), Velcro (Amy Lennox), Robbie's best mate who runs a laundrette, Lord Bellingham (Clive Carter), one of Robbie's regular customers and a funder of the campaign, Clodagh (Suzie Chard) and Dana (Beverly Rudd), Robbie's vile stepsisters who run a titty bar, and Chelle (Sharon Clarke), a rickshaw cyclist. And a chorus of clubgoers, Soho tradesmen, the press and beautiful people.

And to top it off, Sandi Toksvig as the Narrator. Who as is the right of Ms. Toksvig, was fabulous, sarcastic, had a very large book and did look over the top of her spectacles at us. And we were grateful for the opportunity to be condescended to.

Anyway. It's about political spin, sleaze, falling in love with the people you shouldn't, and dreams for something just that little bit better. The shoe is Robbie's phone that he leaves behind at a fundraising party. With some of the best music Stiles and Drewe have ever written, and a so sharp it'll cut you book and songs containing some of the best belly laughs ever. (seriously, the Stepsisters' song 'I'm so Over Men' had to re-recorded at the end due to the audience laughing too hard). I'm serious about the songs. there's a song about internet dating, Gypsies of the Ether which is one of the most gorgeous love songs ever. And Velcro and Marilyn's song about not settling for second best, Let Him Go, was heart breaking. The only problem is that it's *so* site-specific that you don't know if it could sustain a decent run - most of the jokes and dialogue are a) London and b) theatre and gay culture. All the acting was brilliant - Robbie just sweet enough, Velcro scatty, Marilyn absolutely composed, James torn and somehow still noble, George completely skin crawling. A couple of the songs need tweaking a bit, and the loose ends were tied up by people running on stage at the very end with 'guess what' in the spirit of panto, but otherwise we nearly deafened 'em when it came to cheering at the bows.

*In which Robbie was played by Gareth Gates, miked to the hilt, and James Prince by Oliver Tompsett. One day we will get Daniel Boys to play Robbie. he's said he wants to.

Pubmeet happened. Where we all went 'SQUEE AVENGERS TRAILER SQUEE', encouraged people to watch The Fades, talked 'Supernatural is the US does UK horror, just with prettier people', discussed the Degas exhibition at the Royal Academy* (specifically the relationship with photography and how it changed from a freakshow you took the piss out of and tried not to resemble in the 1870s to a really important reference tool by the late 1890s - seriously, go see) and grumbled about galleries not being very good at providing decent merchandise. It's generally agreed the Tate, the Dali museum, the Globe, and the Centre Pompidou are best at it. RA: It's all very well providing postcards at one end and £75-150 jewellery and silk scarves inspired by, but hello, the mid-level stuff? Bags? T-shirts? YOU CAN MAKE MONEY FROM THIS. WE WANT TO BUY THIS.

The duty manager came over at about half one to pick up some glasses, asked us to hide the krispy kremes as it's branded food, we pointed out that we'll be here all day, eating lots of food and drinking lots and do so every month, he got curious and asked what for, Jackie pointed at the London Sci-fi pubmeet sign. He went 'oooo'. And then joined us at 5 when his shift finished, and called his girlfriend the comic geek in.

Pete, Smitty and I discussed Captain America/X-Men/Iron Man crossovers. X-Men First Class and Erik. The fact that Iron Man Noir is a real bloody comic and not just an AU someone thought of where Tony Stark is a rich playboy Indiana Jones whose adventures get recorded for an adventure magazine by Pepper. Smitty and her evil ideas for extending the idea someone's only posted a couple of bits of, where Erik's dad gets Dr Erskine to get Erik out of Germany when he goes to the US, and then when Erskine dies in '42, he gets adopted by Howard Stark and grows up to be the Stark heir. (Tony is, by this stage and current film timelines, a menopause baby given that he would've been born in the 60s and Maria's pretty much the same age as Howard. I also pointed out the evil idea someone had that Maria was the girl who snogged Steve. Tony: 'So, the girl you kissed... point her out in this photo. Oh god. You snogged my mother.') Cue me doing a quick 'okay, Einstein came over in '33 and never left due to Hitler coming to power, Goodbye to Berlin (book Cabaret is based on) is '30-33, erik would've been... er... 6 or so, given his powers don't develop until '43-44..., might want to check when the kid trains happened to the UK for further date stuff.'

*I mentioned that I'd seen this on sunday. Cue Taz going 'DEGAS? WHERE? GIMME.' ...I did not know she liked this. Also, as there was lots of anatomical study, which meant I was provided with the very odd realisation that I have the figure of a 19th century ballet dancer. Seriously. shortarse, short body, hourglass with really big muscled thighs.

:sigh: cold appears to have set in. Guzzling fisherman's friends to combat sore throat and blocked sinuses. At least I'm not leaving a trail of tissues.

updating bad. whoopses. Not much really happening aside from Merlin squee (which, er, mostly consists of me going 'oh, *Bradley*' and giggling at the knights.). Downton Abbey is awesome and they can't go more than two minutes without someone saying 'This damned war.' Edwardian soap, I love you. Also, I would like Thomas to get laid this series. Allen Leech is busy being very amused by the fact that Branson got voted as 'least likely to be a virgin'. Unlike Matthew Crawley. :cough:

Strictly has started again. Some decent-ish performances so far - Chelsee's good but a bit bouncy, Anita Dobson was pure grace for ballroom and had waaay too much 80s fun for the latin, Holly Valance was decent but a bit hesitant, Harry Judd is brilliant but getting tripped up by Aliona's not-great choreography, Jason Donovan is stomping over the competition but then does have musicals training.

Honourable mentions: Dan Lobb: very cute, not bad. Alex Jones.. okay? Rory Bremner's not bad. Audley Harrison is... giant?

Crap: Lulu, Nancy Dell' Olio (Cannot dance at all), Edwina Curry (now out)

in the wtf: Robbie Savage was awful in the 1st week, with Ola dancing around him in a tiny outfit, then suddenly turned into a graceful Fred Astaire for ballroom. Cue jawdrops. Russell Grant: Having *way* too much fun, cracking everyone up, but is doing all the steps and is in time. See him lasting quite a while and bumping off all the so-sos. Oh, and audience is going 'Artem, why are you even *bothering* with a shirt?

In other news, my brother's landlady has just gone psycho. Seriously. my mum is staying there to make sure she doesn't break in and change the locks while they're out, she cut off the electricity this morning after pounding on their door at 2am last night and serving them with an eviction notice on sunday, Saturday night one of the *other* tenants in the building called the police due to her yelling in the hall. They are fully lawyered up.

I posted a prompt on the kink meme. Specifically, about a scene that's only in the film. That is going to be a massive take-off point for fic. Someone left me a comment whining about how I hadn't put 'spoiler warning' in the prompt title and how it wasn't going to be in the US for several weeks.

I have no idea how they thought they weren't going to see the prompt itself when scrolling down the page. Or how putting 'spoiler' in the title field will stop them seeing a two-line entry.

As for 'film won't come out for weeks in the US' - the meme is for book, tv and film. People will be asking for film-specific prompts. If you're hanging out on the kink meme, how are you expecting to avoid film spoilers?

Right, got to book time off work next week due to funeral finally being scheduled. Great Aunt Bina (my grandma's elder sister - utterly, utterly cool) got pneumonia a couple of weeks ago. She'd been getting that little bit frailer and frailer as the years went by (in her 90s, still getting around by herself but in sheltered housing) and when she got it, everyone went '...okay, chances of survival not very much.' Died sunday and we'd been waiting to hear funeral dates since Susan, who was one of her nieces she was closest to was away. So wake and funeral in Newcastle.

In other news: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is flaily hands and the credits being there so you can finish gawping and going 'wah'. Masterpiece of restraint and acting (not what Oscars call acting, but proper, quiet, tense, drop a pin and everyone jumps). Also brain-breaking period detail. Lots of us (70s/early 80s babies) going 'oh god. I remember that pattern. The bag in the foyer?' '....Our school hall curtains.' 'The grafitti.' 'BEDCOVER.' 'Our nan's was blue.' 'Wimpy's.' 'Breathe, sweetie, deep breaths.' '...So many shades of brown.' Seriously, the set dressing and costuming is an extra character on its own.

There are also tiny, tiny details and wordless scenes - two scenes not in the book, one which just fits perfectly and adds a technically not necessary but HUGE detail for one character, and then the Christmas party flashback, where not a sodding word is spoken but every single relationship is explained. And so many others just... rounded out to an extent that we were going 'SWEET FSM FLAILY HANDS OMG OMG THIS IS JUST ...WAH.' It's not the tv series. People are colder and harder and there's no nostalgic/respectful haze but it's tense and condensed and complex and gripping. Plus Kathy Burke as Connie. (cue everyone going 'happy sigh')

:frowns: How is it there is only ttss_kink set up so far? (thursgood also exists, but that's not been updated since '07. This film has been out five days already, people, and it has Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy in it. There are SPIES. it is a 99% male cast. Fandom, you fail.

Other fandom stuff: Taz and Jen mentioned they were discussing Torchwood/Narnia last night in the pub after everyone else went home, I went 'that Susan joins Torchwood one?'. and now I suddenly have thoughts of 'Pevensies run a branch of Torchwood.'

Pevensies: able to keep Harkness on a short leash and totally unfazed by his antics. 'Yes, shagging water-dwellers can give you a nasty skin rash sometimes, there's a cream.' 'Well, yes, of course we put them down, Jack, stop being so squeamish.'

Seriously, Susan's recruitment is obvious, Edmund gets seconded from MI5 or 6 or whoever he's working for, Peter drifts into it whilst on leave from the army (Army brass: 'Torchwood want him? Please take him, he scares the shit out of us'), and Susan yanks Lucy out of whichever hospital she's working in because they need a new doctor who won't bat an eye at weird physiology and poisons and can do battle doctoring in their sleep. suspect they end up at Cardiff *anyway*. Jack is on the one hand terribly interested in these pretty young people who give off all the vibes of older than they are, and have a completely different set of values from everyone else in this day and age. On the other hand, just slightly ...scary. And often treat him like a child. Susan the cool diplomat bombshell who's a better sharpshooter with a pistol than the best sniper is with a rifle, Peter the general, little Lucy the healer who really does remind him a bit too much of his ex, and Edmund the spymaster. He'd swear they fell out of the Rift if it wasn't for the fact that they check out completely. All scans show them as this time period, no chronal energy like you get with the Doctor's companions.

Pubmeet: where one can discuss fannishness, comics, tv scheduling and logistics of program making... and it's all in the name of nano.

'er, how the hell do I costume Apollo? Lycra=bad bad idea on telly.'
'Yeah, see 7 of 9, they had to re-do her costume.'
'Angie - I think light reflective fabric w/added circuitry. You know, the stuff they used for Islington in Neverwhere. Tron, though awesome, was something like $600 per costume. Not tv budget.'
'So how would you do Jack's feet?'
'Oh, easy, prosthetic treads. Been done.'

'Change or Die would work for an ongoing thread.... No, opening issue would be absolutely fine for a first ep. Big, boombastic, world spanning.'
'Have you thought that everyone would think Jenny being sick pre-credits of the last ep meant she was preggers? That's usual tv shorthand. Sick and coughing is dying, just sick is pregnancy...'
'Given that she's been sleeping with Shen, bloody miracle.'
'Yes, but this is *Jenny*. Drunken shags are a speciality.'

'So, given budget issues, you can't build the Carrier.'
'I was thinking control room, one room with a couch -'
'And Apollo and Midnighter's bedroom. Viewers will demand this.'
'Oh, so you'd have CGI windows that change constantly'
'and one that's always got Angry Birds on it. With occasional mutterings from Angie of 'die, you little green fuckers!' when she's supposed to be scanning.'

'Comic-con. Yeah, given it's a tentpole series, you'd be going with April airing. That means NYCC in Autumn, not San Diego. Guessing 90% of main filming would be done.'
'The Apollo and Midnighter actors will snog for the audience at least once, right?'
'There will also be going way past the interviewer's level of Ellis geekery.'

'Argh, how do I present that Apollo and Midnighter are a couple in first ep in a normal way?'
'Aside from all the publicity.'
'Er, not making a big deal of it married couple in show, married couple in show... um. Get thee to Firefly?'

Right, doing the making of The Authority the series, adapting the Warren Ellis comic. HBO/Sky-or-BBC joint production, filming mostly in UK, from casting, comic-con appearance, interviews to reviews and fan chatter.

I don't pretend to know a thing about making tv beyond what I've seen in all the behind the scenes, actors tales, etc, so may do a bit more research on certain bits like auditions.

Need to figure out which eps and structure of eps I'll be mentioning,
as well as plot of them. (definitely doing Jenny's death, at least a few flashback scenes of Jenny's life and the made-from-whole cloth one that's how Apollo & Midnighter met since they talk about that one in interview. Hmm. do I add the Change or Die storyline from Stormwatch or is there enough content in the Authority comic itself for 12 tv eps?)

Need to flesh out everyone else who isn't the Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor, Apollo or Midnighter actors (had vague ideas for this for a while). Do some more on comic con, figure out more structure so I've got a decent framework/plot/background to be able to keep writing even when I'm desperate.

Go check things like Game of Thrones and Rome to see timeline of filming, as well as time from announcement of pre-production green light to casting announcement to actual filming and post-production given that there's going to be a fair bit of CGI and green screen in most eps. Oh, and how many Carrier sets they'll need. (yeah, that one is another bit that's probably going to be all of one line...)

Title : Culture is Never Wasted
Author : Gunbunny
Fandom : Eagle
Pairing : Esca/Marcus
Rating : sex! Unexpurgated sex!
Word count: 13,111
Summary : Step-Up/Billy Elliot AU, aka 'I have no shame and am a Matthew Bourne obsessive'.
Disclaimer : Not mine. Rosemary Sutcliff's. Also gratuitous Matthew Bourne fangirling. Esca's career is based on Richard Winsor's.
Feedback : I accept burnt offerings and alcohol. ta to Taz, Pete and Jane for beta-ing.
AO3 link

( part 3 )